Drifting Net Cafe

Drifting Net Cafe
Cover from volume 1 of the manga series Drifting Net Cafe, published by Futabasha
漂流ネットカフェ (Hyōryū Netto Kafe)
Genre	Science fiction, mystery, romance
Manga
Written by	Shūzō Oshimi
Published by	Futabasha
Demographic	Seinen
Magazine	Manga Action
Original run	February 28, 2009 – June 28, 2011
Volumes	7
Television drama
Directed by	Hajime Takezono Takashi Fujio
Original network	TBS / MBS
Original run	April 15, 2009 – June 24, 2009
Episodes	11

Drifting Net Cafe (漂流ネットカフェ, Hyōryū Netto Kafe^?) is a Japanese seinen manga by Shuzo Oshimi that was serialized in the manga magazine, Manga Action. Drifting Net Cafe is a science fiction mystery involving a group of patrons trapped in an internet café, which has become a strange universe of its own. The story focuses primarily on the relationship between Koichi Toki, a salaryman who leads a trouble-free but unexciting life, and Kaho Tono, his first love whom he never forgot.

The manga was adapted into a TBS television series on April 15, 2009 and stars Atsushi Itō as Koichi Toki.

The manga was serialized in Futabasha's Manga Action and the 63 chapters were compiled into 7 volumes from February 28, 2009 to June 28, 2011. The defunct American publisher JManga licensed the manga and released the first volume in August 2011. The name of the manga is a reference to Kazuo Umezu's The Drifting Classroom, which it is a retelling of. The manga has also been published in Spain by Milky Way Ediciones.

The series was released in a 4-disc DVD boxset on August 5, 2009. The ending theme「Brave Heart (Remix)」by MAY'S was released as a single on April 22, 2009.

Katherine Dacey of Manga Bookshelf was disappointed in how the first volume of the manga stood in comparison to The Drifting Classroom, saying the horror was not as well-executed, but felt that the manga had better pacing and artwork: "Long-time fans of Classroom are likely to find Oshimi’s update slick but soulless, as it relies more heavily on low-budget disaster movies than the original source material for its characters and conflicts." Sean Gaffney of A Case Suitable for Treatment felt that the horror aspect was pulled off well in the first volume, but was turned off by the excessive violence and sex: "It’s as sordid as it sounds, and made me feel ill... [It] didn’t take long for morality to erode, much like [The Drifting Classroom]."